Work in Progress

A podcast about the meaning and identity we find in work

By Slack Team, October 31, 2017

A cab driver (who escaped enslavement on the underground railroad). The owner of a Jewish appetizing store (who quit being an engineer to join the family business). Some guy on Snapchat (who turned it into a career).

Behind every working human,
there’s a story.

Work in Progress is Slack’s new podcast about the meaning and identity we find in work. Join host Dan Misener for stories of personal ambition and debilitating insecurities, great successes and abject failures, the plans we make and the luck that…happens.

Every weekend, you can listen to a new Work in Progress episode on Sirius XM. Episodes are available the following Mondays on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and through apps like Stitcher.

What’s Slack, you say?

Glad you asked! Slack makes an app that helps teams at companies, big and small, communicate and do their work in a more transparent and productive manner. We’re a global company working seamlessly across our offices around the world, and it’s our goal to help others do the same.

Why did we make this podcast?

In short: Because we make software for working people, we’re genuinely fascinated by work, how work is changing, and how the nature of how we think about ourselves as working people is also changing. What you do for a living means a lot—to yourself, and to others. This podcast, along with the stories produced by the Slack Editorial team for our blog, explores this very theme. Our hunch—and hope—is listeners and readers will relate to a lot of these stories, and find them useful and interesting when reflecting on their own life’s work. Read the long answer here.

Listen to Episode 29:

EPISODE TWENTY EIGHT | FOOTLOOSE & FREE(LANCER)

Illustration by Kelsey Wroten

Dive into the daily hustle, juggle, and struggle of the freelance life in this special episode. Meet a freelance farmer with a novel approach to traditional work; a writer, mother and animal keeper bitten by the travel bug; a sweet-talking freelance collections agent whose business is to get freelancers paid; and a private forensic pathologist who finds the untold stories of the dearly departed.

Listen to Episode 25:

EPISODE TWENTY FOUR | BORING IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Illustration by Josh Cochran

Explore the hidden world of seemingly unremarkable jobs in this special episode with double the stories, including: a video store clerk who gets knocked out of his monotonous comfort zone by a suspicious visitor, a call center agent who finds renewed purpose in how she serves customers, a supermarket chain manager who comes down with a bad case of “bore-out”, and a man whose job literally involves watching grass grow. And he loves it.

Listen to Episode 08:

EPISODE SEVEN | SILENCE IS A VIRTUE

Illustration by Edward Kinsella

Sometimes the most profound things we say and do at work happen when we don’t say anything at all. This week: A librarianʼs shushing earns her superhero status and a young hospital chaplain learns that sitting in silence brings great comfort to ailing, ageing patients.

Listen to Episode 06:

EPISODE FIVE | FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS

Joel Russ behind the register in the early days of Russ & Daughters; Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper; the retail storefront, still in its original location, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Image by Gluekit

Listen to Episode 03:

EPISODE TWO | DREAM JOBS

Jean in front of Discovery. Photo courtesy of Jean Wright

When it comes to envisioning what we want to do with our lives, we set our sights high. In episode 2 of Work in Progress, we hear two very different stories of a dream (job) coming true, whether by a random stroke of luck or through decades of perseverance.

Listen to Episode 02:

EPISODE ONE | GOING WITH THE FLOW

Some people know exactly what they want to do when they grow up, while the rest of us take a different approach—flying by the seat of our pants, dipping in and out of jobs not giving too much thought to any master plan because frankly, it doesn’t exist. Going with the flow can change your life forever and take you to some pretty unexpected places—whether backstage with David Bowie or onto the set of one of TVs’ biggest sci-fi thrillers. Welcome to the debut episode of Work In Progress, Slack’s new podcast about the meaning and identity we find in work. Hosted by Dan Misener.

Stay updated with Slack by signing up for our newsletter

Slack is the collaboration hub, where the right people are always in the loop and key information is always at their fingertips. Teamwork in Slack happens in channels — searchable conversations that keep work organized and teams better connected.